Transnational Spatial Dimensions of Colombian–Canadian Relations in the Era of Capitalist Expansionism

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe study of the history of the Western Hemisphere, as a spatial unit, has been for the most part disregarded. In North America, historians such as Lester Langley and Herbert Bolton tried to make holistic sense of the political, economic, and social development of such a broad region, but their scope was US-centric in nature. Moreover, these transnational spatial approaches to the analysis of Inter-American relations continue to be criticized by temporal-centered nation-state historians that find the approach broad and general. This article focuses on spatial dimensions of the history of Colombian–Canadian relations as a means to question the effectiveness of traditional approaches and argues that by focusing on the transnational spatial dimensions of history, the researcher is able to construct a more holistic analysis of the political, economic, and social dynamics of nation-building. This research shows that the spaces construed by the transnational interaction between foreign and domestic public and private interests reveal complex dynamics that contradict the traditional US-centric and state-centric arguments advanced by temporal historians of Colombian and Latin American history.